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the humblest of the brute creation, He adds,

'Ye are of more

So, too, in His

value than many sparrows' (Luke xii. 7). Sermon on the Mount, He said, 'Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; and your Heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they?' (Matt. vi. 26). Though in comparison of the vast fabric of the material Universe, any individual man may appear to be little, yet God has set His heart upon him to visit and to magnify him. It was in the spirit of devout gratitude to God for His distinguishing regard to man, that the Psalmist exclaimed, 'When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained, what is man that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour' (Psalm viii. 3-5). Every individual of our race is permitted and encouraged to approach God with the words, 'Our Father which art in heaven'; and this, of itself, shows the importance of our nature. But the crowning distinction of that nature is, that the Son of God has assumed it, has taken it into indissoluble union with His own eternal Personality, and that, through Him, we may become, in a yet higher sense, the sons of God,' and thus, too, may be heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.'

exposition of that phrase can come up to the full import of his language, which does not include the loss of spiritual life, as resulting from the withdrawal of the Spirit from the heart of man. This, we conceive, is the origin of our depravity. In the absence of that inward life which is imparted by the Holy Ghost, our affections become disordered, and we fall under the power of unholy and sensual tendencies. Self becomes the great object of regard; and pride and resistance to restraint develop themselves in offensive forms. No longer drawn to God in pure and reverent love, we seek our own gratification, or glory, or wealth, as the end of being; and too often sensational impulses gain the mastery over our better aspirations and desires.

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3. Still further, as one of the penal consequences of the first transgression, we are brought under the stern law of mortality; and that law is not reversed even in the case of those who have embraced the Saviour. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness' (Rom. viii. 10). We have already considered this part of the original sentence, in dwelling on the effects of the fall on our first parents; and it is only necessary to add that, as the result of the reign of death, the earthly life of multitudes is one of painful bondage,' from the apprehension of that dreaded change.

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4. But, as we have seen, spiritual death must naturally issue in eternal separation from God, unless it is removed by the communication of life from above. Among the effects of the fall, therefore, viewed simply in themselves, we must place liability to eternal death; but the provisions of redemption come in to meet our case, showing us that no man will finally perish merely through the sin of Adam, and that all will be dealt with on a system of moral government which combines grace with righteousness.

In tracing the penal consequences of the first transgression we have adverted to depravity as necessarily resulting from the withdrawal of the Spirit. This feature of our natural condition

is again and again placed before us in Scripture, while the facts of history illustrate the universal diffusion of moral evil, and the strength of our unholy tendencies. The conflict which St. Paul traces in Rom. vii. between the impulses of sinful passion and the better aspirations of an enlightened mind confirms the fact of our depravity; while his emphatic declaration, ‘For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing,' shows that that depravity is total, as well as universally diffused. The remarkable phrase just cited, 'the flesh,' is clearly used in many passages of Holy Scripture, to indicate human nature considered as unregenerate and depraved. The precise idea which it suggests appears to be that of human nature viewed as destitute of the spiritual life which only the Holy Ghost can impart, and thus as being under the power of unhallowed tendencies and impulses. The words of our Lord, when urging the absolute necessity of a new birth, are full of instruction on this point :- Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit' (John iii. 5, 6). Nor should we overlook the striking manner in which St. Paul again and again uses the phrase, 'to be in the flesh,' not in reference to our earthly life, but as indicating our state when destitute of the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit. Thus he writes to the Romans, 'For when we were in the flesh, the sinfu passions, which were through the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto death' (Rom. vii. 5). They that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you' (Rom. viii. 8, 9).

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We must not close this subject without again adverting to the light shed on it by the arrangements of the mediatorial economy. Adam was spared and permitted to become the head of a race, because Divine wisdom and love had provided a Redeemer to appear in the fulness of time. The provisions of redemption reach to the whole race of man, though it does not

follow from this either that all men will necessarily be saved, or that they are indeed at any time actually justified through Christ. But this is clear, that through the mediatorial righteousness of the Lord Jesus, the way of justification and life is opened to all men. The case of those who die in infancy is plain they are justified and have eternal life in Christ. The case of those adults who have never heard of the Saviour, we must leave to Him who only can apply to their varying position and character the principles of His government; but it must not be forgotten that that government is now one of grace through Christ, as well as of righteous retribution. As to all, however, who live to years of moral action, and to whom the Lord Jesus has been made known, their justification depends on their embracing Him, so as to appropriate His sacrifice and surrender themselves to His service.

Thus the doctrine of Original Sin must ever be viewed in connection with the abounding grace provided for man in Christ Jesus. Dr. Pope has properly said, 'The great antitheses of this doctrine are reconciled in the statement, carefully guarded, that original sin is the sin of Adam's descendants as under a covenant of grace. What it would otherwise have been we can never know there would then have existed no federal union of mankind. The souls of Adam and Eve would have only added two more to the spirits of evil. As we know the doctrine and the fact, it is the harmony of truths in our being otherwise irreconcilable. Human nature is lost, and yet we are still “the offspring of God." The natural and moral image-essentially one in creation-has departed in its glory, and yet it is recognised as in some sense still existing. Every man is born condemned, and yet he is bidden not to put from him life. He is by nature able neither to think nor feel, nor act aright; yet he is throughout Scripture appealed to as if his duty were simply matter of will. In short, original sin and original grace met in the mystery of mercy at the very gate of Paradise.' *

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* Compendium of Christian Theology,' vol. ii., pp. 60, 61.

SECTION III.

THE MEDIATORIAL ECONOMY.

CHAPTER I.

THE ETERNAL COUNSEL OF THE FATHER.

O truth is more distinctly affirmed in the New Testament,

The fatal

the Divine Mind before the foundation of the world. apostasy of the first Head of our race was foreseen; and a restorative economy was provided, under which all who should embrace the Saviour should rise to higher privileges than were enjoyed by man in Paradise. It was the eternal purpose of God that, in the fulness of time, the Son should assume our nature, should dwell on earth as the Man of sorrows, should redeem us by dying in our stead, and should then rise to a state of unutterable glory as the Mediator, and bestow on all His people a complete and everlasting salvation. Under this constitution of grace, the Incarnate Son was to become the Head of a new and sacred brotherhood of humanity, who, throughout eternity, should enjoy His complacency and reflect His glory.

It is instructive to turn to some of the passages in which these positions are affirmed. In the first Epistle of St. Peter we read, 'Ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers; but with precious blood, as of a lamb with

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